Preserving the traditional cultural beauty of the Tong Goi Boat Singing Festival

The Tong Goi Boat Singing Festival, a unique folk performance in Tan Hoi Commune, Dan Phuong District (old), now O Dien Commune, Hanoi City, has just been recognized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage.

This is a great honor for the local government and people, affirming the unique value of a rare folk performance in the land along the Red River; an important basis for the locality to preserve, promote and further spread the value of this unique and special art form.

Special art form

The old Dan Phuong district has three unique folk cultural addresses: Ca Tru in Thuong Mo commune; Ba Duong Noi kite festival in Hong Ha commune and Tong Goi boat singing festival in Tan Hoi commune.

The rowing song Tong Goi Tan Hoi is a unique rowing song on land from the Doai region, a unique form of folk performance in Vietnam.

Tong Goi Boat Singing Festival. (Photo: Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports)

Tong Goi is located along the two banks of the ancient Nhue River, in the middle of a traditional folk culture area, close to the ancient Thang Long citadel. Tong Goi consists of four villages: Thuong Hoi, Thuy Hoi, Vinh Ky and Phan Long (Tan Hoi commune, Dan Phuong district) and has long been famous for its unique Cheo Tau singing festival associated with the performing arts to praise the virtues of General Van Di Thanh, who had the merit of repelling foreign invaders and protecting his homeland.

General Van Di Thanh was a descendant of the Tran Dynasty mandarins, born in the ancient Goi region. As a highly educated and talented person, well versed in the classics, he had the merit of recruiting soldiers and training them to fight against the Ming invaders. He was famous for his 6 oaths and commanded the army to victory wherever they fought. Under his talented leadership, the enemy suffered heavy losses.

After his death in Goi commune, to praise the virtue of General Van Di Thanh, the people of Goi commune created a unique performing art form of Cheo Tau. Every year on the full moon of January, the people of Goi commune (now Tan Hoi commune) hold the Traditional Cheo Tau Singing Festival.

There is another explanation about the Boating Festival related to the military meeting at Quan Than beach (now in Thuong Cat ward, Bac Tu Liem, adjacent to the old Tong Goi) between Trieu Quang Phuc and Ly Phat Tu, discussing the division of land to rule for each side. In that military meeting, Ly Phat Tu went by boat and Trieu Quang Phuc went by elephant to attend. The Boating Festival is a form of expressing that military meeting, so there are boats and elephants.

The ship model and statue are being completed in preparation for the traditional boat racing festival Tong Goi 2024.

There is also a story that, in the past, the Trung Sisters fought against the Han invaders, marching their troops through Tong Goi, boats and ships were passing by on the Nhue River and the Red River, bustling with heroic spirit. The people remembered the merits of the Trung Sisters, imitating the dancing and singing of the Trung Sisters' generals when they were resting, and created the art form of Cheo Tau singing to commemorate, so Cheo Tau singing is also called Tau Tuong singing. The participants in the singing festival are all women or women pretending to be men. This is also a unique feature of the Cheo Tau singing festival.

These three legends exist in parallel, helping to explain the origin of the singing festival. However, the legend of General Van Di Thanh is the most popular, reflected in the beliefs of the local people and the content of the lyrics in the festival are all related to the worship of General Van Di Thanh.

The black-shirted militia of General Van Di Thanh had a special way of fighting the enemy, which was to row boats at night to secretly attack the enemy. And the rowing team was made up of women who were familiar with the river. The songs sung by the women were like a praise for the bravery, endurance, and hard work of the girls of Tong Goi land.

Therefore, the special and strange thing about Cheo Tau singing is that only women sing, women pretend to be men in roles such as elephant trainers whose job is to blow the horn and give signals, this is a very unique feature of Cheo Tau.

According to the elders, the Boat Rowing Festival was first held in 1683 and according to custom, it is held every 25 to 30 years, in years of favorable weather and good harvests in the four villages. The festival is not held during crop failures or famine.

The Ca Nhi troupe performs Cheo Tau singing. (Photo: Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports)

In 1922, the last festival was held and was interrupted by the war. It was restored in 1998. Currently, the Boat Rowing Festival is held every 5 years from January 13 to 15 every year.

In years when the Festival is not held, Tan Hoi commune and the Rowing Club will offer offerings at Voi Phuc Temple, Van Son Tomb.

According to the people of Tan Hoi, the most special performance in the festival is the singing of the Cheo Tau with the response of melodies between two ships - wooden dragon boats, not launched but symbolically rowed on land.

Each ship has 13 people including the ship queen, 2 ships and 10 ships. The ship queen is about 50 years old, must be good at dancing and singing, and have a complete family. The ship and the ships are young girls between 13-16 years old, from well-educated families, obedient, good at singing and dancing. When performing, the ship queen plays the gong, the 2 ships lead the singing and the ships sing along. Behind is a pair of elephants with two elephant trainers whose job is to blow the horns and give signals.

Singing Cheo Tau consists of 20 melodies, divided into forms such as: Hat trinh, hat thuyen and hat bo bo. The content of the songs in the Cheo Tau performance are individual songs and the response songs of the "ship" and "statue", all aiming to praise the merits of Thanh Hoang Tong Goi Van Di Thanh.

The singing process is performed strictly in order: presentation ceremony, incense offering, wine offering, ship song (or statue song), singing bo bo, singing ly songs, singing vi songs... In addition, the indispensable props in the performance of the Cheo Tau singing ceremony are the ship and statue (wooden elephant).

All the songs of the art of Cheo Tau have been preserved intact by the people of Tan Hoi. Through the ups and downs and changes of history, the lyrics and melodies still maintain their position, captivating people's hearts.

Preserving and promoting heritage

Singing Cheo Tau. (Photo: Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports)

On May 14, 2025, the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism signed Decision No. 1351/QD-BVHTTDL to include the traditional festival of the Tong Goi Boat Cheo Singing Festival in Tan Hoi commune, Dan Phuong district, Hanoi city in the List of National Intangible Cultural Heritage.

This is a great joy for the people and local authorities.

To prevent the heritage from being forgotten and to fully promote its traditional cultural values, experts recommend that authorities organize folk classes and clubs at schools and cultural houses to teach the younger generation the songs, dances, and rituals of the Boating Festival, in which elderly artisans will be invited to teach and perform models to pass on their skills to the younger generation.

In addition, it is necessary to include the content of the Rowing Boat Association in the local education program in the history-culture subject, and at the same time encourage students to participate in performances and practices to become more attached to the heritage; introduce the Tong Goi Rowing Boat Association more widely on digital platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, local websites, tourism sites... to spread the value of the heritage.

In Tan Hoi, there is currently the Tan Hoi Rowing Club with more than 40 members, including 20 children, aged 13-18, participating in regular activities.

Over the years, the club's activities have made significant progress, collecting and reviving many ancient melodies.

Tan Hoi Cheo singing is not only limited to local performance areas but is also brought to schools and performed in many other places.

The head of Tan Hoi Boat Rowing Club, artist Ngo Thi Thu, and the club members have brought Boat Rowing to many other provinces and cities across the country such as Ninh Binh, Phu Tho, Nghe An.../.

(Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/giu-gin-net-dep-van-hoa-truyen-thong-cho-hoi-hat-cheo-tau-tong-goi-post1058231.vnp